How did communist rule in the Soviet Union differ from Marx's vision of a classless and stateless society?

In Karl Marx’s vision, the state was a tool of class repression that would naturally "wither away" once the proletariat achieved victory and class distinctions disappeared, leading to a stateless, classless society.12

In contrast, communist rule in the Soviet Union diverged from this theory in several fundamental ways:

• Expansion of State Power: Rather than withering away, the state apparatus under Leninism and Stalinism became increasingly powerful, centralized, and oppressive.324
• Vanguard Rule: Marx expected the working class to develop consciousness through collective action. Conversely, Lenin argued that workers required a "vanguard party" of intellectual elites to guide them, leading to a dictatorship exercised by party leaders rather than the workers themselves.52
• Totalitarian Control: Soviet governance became a totalitarian system that regulated all aspects of life, utilizing secret police, forced labour, and state-sanctioned terror to suppress opposition.32
• Revolution from Above: While Marx emphasized historical processes driven by socioeconomic development, Stalin implemented "revolution from above," using state force to impose rapid industrialization and collectivization, often at a devastating human cost.35

Ultimately, the Soviet experience replaced the goal of a stateless society with a rigid, bureaucratic autocracy.26